Our Expert Faculty

Angie’s passion for life is exhibited through her love of dance, which she shares with those she teaches. She first began to exhibit a love of the art at the age of two and over the last decades has been afforded the privilege to share her passion through teaching dance and ballet for kids.

Her experience has provided a strong foundation in many of forms of dance, with training in ballet, modern, jazz, musical theatre, tap and gymnastics. In addition, Mrs Stone has trained as a dancer at L’École Supérieure de Ballet Contemporain de Montréal, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and Canada’s National Ballet School.

Professional Credentials:

Graduate of the Teacher Training Program at Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS)

Registered Teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD)

Affiliate Member with the Society of Russian Ballet (SRB)

Honours Graduate from the Department of Dance at Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts

Angie’s life goal is to inspire tomorrow’s young artists to develop confidence, ability and passion for dance and ballet.

Catherine Kourkounakis brings a wealth of theatre and dance experience as well as over 30 years of teaching expertise in the Metro Toronto region. Catherine teaches the Pre-Primary levels and up. Her students over the past years consistently receive excellent exam results. As the Artistic Director of Prima Ballet School, Catherine’s passion is creating opportunities for ensemble work for students to develop their dancing and performing talents.

Her credits for production and choreography include a 2005 reproduction of Bournonville’s A Folk Tale, Award winning Festival choreography, co-producer/co-choreographer of Cinderella, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and yearly productions of The Nutcracker. In the fall of 2009, she debuted her chamber ballet, Life is a Dream, choreographing this intimate ballet and co-producing it with Belcanto Studios’ musical director, Gordon Brown and talented singers and dancers from the Toronto area.

Professional Credentials:

Honours Associate Graduate of National Dance at the National Ballet School of Canada (NBS)

Catherine has also worked with two other dance schools to create and develop the dance curriculum for ages 3- 6 years old and has mentored many junior teachers. In addition, she has been a mentor for RAD’s Certificate of Ballet Teaching Studies program.

Catherine has also designed and implemented Durham Dance for Parkinson’s which offers classes in Brooklin, Whitby & Port Hope.

Catherine’s passion is visible in the creation of Prima’s Nutcracker and encourages every student to look within themselves to give with gratitude from the heart.

Stephanie Landry (Ms. Stephanie)Sr Ballet Mistress

Stephanie Landry, native of Montreal, Quebec, moved to Toronto Ontario at the early age of ten to pursue her classical training at the National Ballet School. She then joined The National Ballet of Canada where she enjoyed a 15-year dance career. As well as performing in Toronto with the regular seasons, she traveled annually to eastern and western Canada, United States, Mexico and frequently to Europe.

The National Ballet of Canada’s rich repertoire offered Stephanie a wide variety of roles, from corps de ballet to soloist, as well as Principal Character works: to name a few, Les Sylphides, Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Onegin, Coppelia and especially the Balanchine Ballets.

Professional Credentials:

15 year dance career with The National Ballet of Canada

Certified Pilates Instructor

Affiliate Member with the Society of Russian Ballet (SRB)

Stephanie retired with Canada’s National Ballet Company in 1991 and began teaching. She brought to the training, the added skill of conditioning and injury-prevention technique called Pilates. She has given countless dance workshops, has successfully brought students to professional competitive performances, and has adjudicated herself in Ontario and Western Canada. Stephanie looks forward to sharing her years of experiences and knowledge with up and coming students.

Stephanie’s passion is seeing students bring their very best to the art form and wants them to succeed every step of the way.

Tracy Smith (Ms Smith)Contemporary, Tap, Musical Theatre

Tracy started dancing at the age of two in her hometown of Brighton in the UK. Her love for dance and performance grew quickly whilst studying at the Jacqueline Storey Theatre School and performing in musicals such as Annie (Molly and Duffy), The Sound Of Music (Gretl), The King And I (Siamese Twin) and Wind In The Willows (Portly Otter).

She studied all styles of dance, including Contemporary, Jazz, ISTD National and Greek, and was a finalist in many award competitions. At the age of 14, she was ranked one of the Top 7 tappers in the UK.

Professional Credentials:

Graduate of the highly regarded 3-year Dance Diploma Program at Laine Theatre Arts

Honours in ISTD Ballet, Tap and Modern

Solo Seal RAD and ISTD Associate with Distinction in Ballet, Tap and Modern

Tracy’s love for teaching emerged during her time at Laine while working as a teacher’s assistant for children’s classes. Tracy went on to work for Carnival Cruise Lines as a performer, featured soloist, adage and magician’s assistant and kept her love for teaching alive in the role of Dance Captain. Upon her return from the sea, she joined Toronto’s “The Dance Company” as a senior dancer and performed at many trade shows, award ceremonies and private functions.

Tracy is excited to be teaching and hopes to pass on her love for dance to the next generation.

In addition, Prima Ballet School is blessed to have the following support staff as a part of the team:

ABOUT US

Prima Ballet School is committed to developing a strong arts and dance community of young people in the Durham Region, Ontario. We provide pre-professional training that is focused on a performing arts education. Our school is unique and specializes in ballet and also offers other forms of dance to encourage students to achieve their highest potential. We are a non-competitive, community oriented, ballet training school.